Dump trucks are, of course, commonly used to transport materials, such as gravel, sand and the like from a source location of the material to a destination where the material is unloaded. In general, the typical dump truck includes a chassis having wheels, engine and a drivers cab and also a dump bed that is pivotally mounted to the chassis along the rear thereof. To unload the material, therefore, there is a hydraulic cylinder that raises the front of the dump bed to an elevated position whereupon the material slides rearwardly to be discharged off of the back of the truck bed.
One of the difficulties with such operation, however, is that that the wheels of the chassis must be stable and, preferably, on a level terrain. If, however, the terrain at the destination is not level, the ground may be tilted or on a hill, the dump truck bed may be tilted side to side, or along its longitudinal axis and the material will not exit the dump bed evenly and, in some instances, the non-level orientation of the dump bed can cause the material to move to one side of the dump bed, thereby unbalancing the dump truck, and potentially causing the entire dump truck to roll over on its side, creating a hazardous situation for the driver as well as other personnel in the area.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to have a self-leveling system incorporated into the dump truck that would sense an out of level or tilted orientation of the dump truck bed and provide a corrective action by bringing the dump bed back to a generally level orientation so as to avoid an unbalanced condition and potential tipping of the dump truck.